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with him, most desperately. Maud is not long in finding out this disagreeable fact, which she does after the fashion of Azo in " Parisina," by a sleeping confession on the part of her sister. As soon as she is clearly aware of the transfer of love on the one side, and the bestowal of it on the other, she coincides with considerable resignation, and endeavours to persuade her brother, Ernest, a very fiery young gentleman, to do the same; in which attempt, as might be expected, she very signally fails. A quarrel arises between the two young men in the presence of Sir Charles, which had very nearly come to a combat, when Maud interposes, and, for a time, puts off the dispute. Maud now disguises herself in the dress of Albert, having intercepted a challenge from Ernest to him, meets the challenger, and falls. The play now hastens to a conclusion. On finding who has been his victim, Ernest kills himself, and we have a hint that Sir Charles does not intend long to survive. Thus, if we cannot exactly say

"The hero raves, the heroine cries,
All stab, and everybody dies,"

we have, at all events, crying enough and stabbing enough to satisfy anybody not particularly blood-thirsty. We have not spared Mr. Powell's plot, and the faults of the plot arise from the faults of the characters; Maud is too strong, Alice is too weak, Ernest is too furious, Albert is too contemptible, and all are too sentimental. And now let us turn from the hasty conception to the equally hasty execution, and we shall find that Mr. Powell is a poet of far too high an order to play such tricks with his genius. First we will take a few images-perfect gems:

"Love begins sooner even than with sisters.

It hath its cradle in the mother's hope,

Long ere we see the light.

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"Love must be more than I can comprehend,

For it has raised your meekness to a fire,

Which makes your eyes flash like the midnight stars.

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Singularly happy is the following expression. When Ernest has drawn his sword upon Albert, Maud interposes, and in the course of her speech she

says,

"My sweet brother,

Put that worst righter of all human wrongs

Into its scabbard."

And, in her further expostulation, reminding him of the indulgent tenderness which Alice had always experienced at their hands, she says,

"If you

Cast Alice from you, I must follow her.
I cannot throw, if you can, from the heart
Those memories which now are part of me;

When she, a little infant, learned from us

Each word she knows; and when at first the sounds

Came from her tiny lips, and they were dark

And unintelligible to all, to me

They were a music understood and felt

In all the perfect music of a voice

Which has a heart to listen, not an ear

Thick crusted with the cruelty of earth."

The whole play is studded with starry passages: we will take one more and then conclude. Alice is describing his sail past Sicily :

"Great Rome's exhaustless granary. 'Twas night,
But fiery-hearted Etna was awake,

And, like a roaring giant chained to earth,
Roared out his fierce defiance to the gods.
The bark flew on; we passed the pillars where
Europe and Africa hold their mountains back
To let the impetuous waves rush headlong by!
On break of day, before the golden sun
Had lit the ocean with its glowing kiss,
I saw the regal rocks of England rise
Out of the hazy distance, and I felt
As one who, sailing on a dreary waste,
Bursts on a world of music unawares.'

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These passages will be amply sufficient to justify our opinion of Mr. Powell's capabilities; and if he does but earnestly endeavour to be true to himself, to do justice to his high powers, by some degree of carefulness and attention, it will not be long before we have from him something which England will not willingly let die. He has no more sincere admirers than we are, and none who more truly regret the "fatal facility" of his muse.

The Scottish Episcopal Times, and Church in Scotland.

AMID the gloom and perplexity which some believe are now gathering over our own beloved and apostolical Church in England, it is truly refreshing to our hearts to perceive our once persecuted, aud still, alas! neglected SISTER IN SCOTLAND, beginning to revive somewhat, and assert her claims to be heard, not only in the land of Knox and his mad admirers, but also in different parts of Christendom. As a token (and to us, indeed, a most eloquent one) that brighter days are beginning to dawn upon Episcopacy the other side of the Tweed, we direct especial attention to "THE SCOTTISH EPISCOPAL TIMES," of which five numbers have now appeared. This is the first attempt, we conceive, since the infamous assembly of 1638, on the part of the Scottish Church, to provide herself with a public organ through the press, wherewith to develope her principles, and express her condition. It gives us also great pleasure to add, that it is edited by a loyal-hearted and high-minded Churchman, who, on more than one occasion, has proved himself to be a most able champion of Episcopal rights and principles. When Sir George Sinclair, with lamentable inconsistency, thought proper to preside at the COMMEMORATION of that lawless riot, where bigotry and mendacity combined together for the vilest purposes, called the ASSEMBLY OF 1638, the now Editor of "THE

EPISCOPAL TIMES " gave Sir George a lesson which he may well remember to the end of his days. In truth, THE LETTER to that honourable Baronet has not often been surpassed for power, pungency, and victorious effect. The Primitive Church in its Episcopacy; with an Essay on Unity and Counsel for the Present Times. By the Author of "Dr. Hookwell." London: Bentley. 1844.

WE can do no more at present than draw our readers' attention to this truly admirable work. It does indeed contain the pith and marrow of the question, and it is a book from whose stores we hope to draw largely on some future oc

casion.

Utilitarianism Unmasked. A Letter to the Rev. M. A. Gathercole, of Mossford Lodge, Great Ilford, Essex, on the Life, Death, and Philosophy of Jeremy Bentham. By the Rev. John F. Colls, D.D. London: Bell.

1844.

THIS Letter, which forms a supplement to the 158th number of the “Edinburgh Review," is one which deserves the most attentive perusal. A more entire demolition of any idol we never saw than that which in this little pamphlet is presented to the notice of the Utilitarian. Jeremy Bentham comes down indeed from his pedestal, and the cause of Christianity is faithfully and ably

served.

Demba, the Fugitive Slave. A West Indian Tale. By W. Mackay. London: Bogue. 1843.

WE have been much pleased with this unpretending little volume; and regarding it as we do, rather as a proof of ability-and we will say genius-than as in itself a successful production, we will fearlessly recommend the author to try again-take a more popular subject, and he will vindicate for himself a good place among the poets of the land.

American Slavery as it is. Testimony by a Thousand Witnesses. New York: Published by the American Anti-Slavery Society; Office, 143, Nassau Street.

It is a trite remark that truth is more extraordinary than fiction; and never was the justice of this saying more strikingly illustrated than in the case of the Negro slavery so long sanctioned and encouraged by every Christian state possessing colonies in either the islands or the continent of America. We will not dwell upon the horrors of the middle passage-the slave-ship, which has been strikingly described as the "Pestilence that walketh on the waters"-nor upon the moral degradation and bodily suffering of the unhappy victims of avarice, cruelty, and lust. But we will remind our readers that these things still exist in all their awful atrocity; and we will direct their attention to the present volume, which is a picture-faithful as it is fearful-of some of the features of that accursed system which prevails in the Southern States of our Transatlantic kinsmen. We are happy to see that, during the last year, there has been a powerful movement against slavery in various States of the American Union. We earnestly pray that the good work thus begun may be completed, and that this plague-spot may be cleared away from the house where our sister dwells. We should wish to see her also up and doing. This is no time for inaction, much less for connivance. Past guilt must be atoned for by present virtue. She must show her abhorrence of both slavery and the slave trade; or, despite her bright hopes and brilliant prospects, she will sink to the pit of destruction coffined in the curse of God. The work before us contains a vast accumulation of facts relating to the actual condition and treatment of American slaves, arranged systematically, with the authority on which they

rest. The work is extremely valuable; its details are most revolting; and yet the most damning features of the system which it describes are scarcely presented to the eye of the reader. It exhibits indeed the physical sufferings of the slave, but it gives only a faint and indistinct idea of the moral evils of slavery.

ECCLESIASTICAL INTELLIGENCE.

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. Ar a meeting of this venerable Society held on the 6th of February, those members who had been recommended by the standing Committee-as reported in our last Number-to form the Committee of General Literature and Education, were duly elected. In accordance, likewise, with the notice given at the general meeting in January, it was agreed that the salaries of the Rev. J. Evans and the Rev. J. D. Glennie should be raised to £300 per annum each. Grants of books were made to the Rev. Dr. Tucker, Ecclesiastical Commissary for Bermuda, to the value of £5, for a library, and a further grant of books, to the value of £5, to be placed at Dr. Tucker's disposal, for the use of the troops stationed in Bermuda; to Lieutenant-Colonel Short, to the value of £10, in aid of schools in the town of Soufrière, and in the river Dorée district, island of St. Lucia, West Indies; to the members of "The National Schoolmaster's Society," residing in Bradford, Yorkshire, and its vicinity, to the value of £7 15s., for the purpose of forming a library; to the Rev. R. A. Denton, for the purpose of performing divine service in the church at Kondebosch, near Cape Town, and to the Rev. R. Kempthorne, Colonial Chaplain of St. Helena. At a former meeting a grant of £5000 was made by the Society towards the erection and endowment of a new cathedral in Calcutta; and the secretary stated at this meeting, that the fourth yearly instalment of £1000 would now be paid. The legacies and donations announced amounted to upwards of £1000. Added to the above grants of books, two others were made for two new churches not named, and thirty-three grants of books and tracts were made for schools, lending libraries, and distribution.

SOCIETY

FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL IN FOREIGN PArts.

This Society is authorized to recommend two clergymen to her Majesty's Government, to be employed in the spiritual charge of the convicts in Norfolk Island. Salary, £250 per annum, with lodgings and rations. Applications should be made to the Secretary, 79, Pall Mall.

The Society has recently published the Journals of the late Visitations of the Bishops of Toronto and Montreal.

The treasurers have received a gold chain, a pearl brooch, and a set of coral ornaments, from three anonymous donors, in aid of the funds of the Society. These are pleasing testimonies of the genuine feeling of Christianity.

INCORPORATED SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE ENLARGEMENT, BUILDING, AND REPAIRING OF CHURCHES AND CHAPELS.

During the quarter ending Dec. 31st, 1843, no less than sixty-four applications for assistance have been made to the Society. The grants voted are thirty in number; and the aid thus afforded will secure the erection of fifteen new and additional churches, the rebuilding, with enlargement, of five existing churches, and the enlargement of, or extension of the accommodation in ten more existing churches. The inhabitants of twelve of the parishes assisted are chiefly engaged in trade, manufactures, or mining operations; the aggregate population being 223,366, and having only church accommodation for

27,349 persons, or less than one-eighth of the whole number. The remaining eighteen places are agricultural parishes, containing a population of 56,209 souls, and possessing church accommodation for only 12,323 persons. The utility of this Society is, therefore, manifest, and it deserves the support of all those who love the Church of England.

A meeting of this Society was held on the 15th of January, 1844, the Archbishop of Canterbury in the chair; when its high importance was further manifested. Grants of money were made towards the building of new churches at Seacroft, in the parish of Whitkirk, Yorkshire; at the Link, in the parish of Leigh, Worcester; at Blaydon, in the parishes of Roydon and Winlaton, Durham; at Thorpe Acre, Peterborough; and at the Groves, in the parish of Sutton, near Hull. Grants of money were also made towards enlarging, by rebuilding, the church at Bednall, Staffordshire, and towards enlarging or otherwise increasing the accommodation in the churches at Usk, Monmouth; Hunmanby, Yorkshire; Spernall, Warwick; Lewes St. Ann, Sussex; Buckley, in the parish of Hawarden, Flintshire; and Stoke Gregory, Somerset. By these grants, church accommodation will be provided for 3825 persons, of which number 2942 sittings will be free. This is a Society, therefore, essentially for benefiting the social, moral, and spiritual condition of the poor. At this meeting, moreover, certificates of the completion of three new churches, and of the enlargement of seven existing churches and chapels, were examined and approved; and the church room provided in these churches is 3796 seats, of which 3266 are free. Orders were issued for the trustees to pay over to the treasurer the sum awarded in each of these cases, that he may remit the amounts of the grants to the respective applicants.

ORDINATIONS. The Bishop of London will hold his next Ordination on Sunday, the 3rd of March, as will also the Bishops of Lincoln, Ripon, Lichfield, Peterborough, and Salisbury. The Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol will hold his next Ordination on Sunday, the 14th of April; the Bishops of Chichester and of Salisbury, for the diocese of Bath and Wells, on June 2nd; and the Bishop of Ely, on the 9th of June next.

CONFIRMATIONS. His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury intends holding a Confirmation at St. Mary-le-Bow Church, Cheapside, on Thursday, April 4th.

MISCELLANEOUS.

At the last meeting of the Committee of the National Society, the treasurer reported that the special fund amounted to £140,212. The sum appropriated already in grants was £20,559 : it was voted for the two-fold purpose of building and maintaining schools. Schools in fifty places were received into union, and grants to sixty-seven places, amounting to £6500, as recommended by the Finance Committee, were confirmed.

Arrangements have been made by the Government for the periodical inspection of all schools aided by public grants, and of other schools in union with the National Society, which may invite inspection. All the inspectors are appointed by her Majesty, upon the recommendation of the Committee of Council, with the concurrence of the Archbishop of each province. The Rev. H. Mosely has recently been appointed inspector of the midland district, and the Rev. F. Cook for the eastern.

There are already about 150 applications to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England, for the establishment and endowment of ecclesiastical districts, under Sir Robert Peel's Act of last session, not one of which is to contain less than 2000 souls.

CITY PRESS, LONG LANE: D. A. DOUDNEY.

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